Uhuru, Raila teams take campaign wars online

JUBILEE
and NASA are engaged in vicious online wars as they battle for the hearts and
minds of 19 million voters.

The
fight has been taken to every social media platform, including WhatsApp,
Google, Facebook and Twitter.

The
massive investments in digital messaging could well revolutionise political
campaigns in Kenya as both Jubilee and NASA step up customised approaches to
win voters.

President
Uhuru Kenyatta’s team and that of his main rival Raila Odinga have made heavy
investments in digital media. Meant to complement their big political rallies,
the two are determined to reach out to potential voters at the convenience of
their target audience through all channels, including their phones.

A
day after Raila was named NASA presidential candidate, someone paid Google to
promote a website named “The Real Raila Odinga”, full of negative stories and
claims that the Opposition candidate is corrupt, violent, crooked and a liar.

It
also makes unsubstantiated allegations, including claims that “Raila faked food
poisoning to avoid a meeting with other NASA co-principals Musalia Mudavadi,
Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetang’ula”. It was referring to an incident in March
this year when he was admitted at the Karen Hospital after he fell ill.

The
top search result for Raila on Google is “The Real Raila Odinga” website,
clearly marked as an advert.

Analyst
Mutahi Nguyi has also set up several platforms on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook,
where he has been posting articles and videos of why Kenyans should not elect
Raila.

“After
the last election, Human Rights Watch found that Raila and ODM was helping
coordinate the riots throughout Kenya,” one of the posts on Facebook states,
rekindling memories of the deadly 2007/2008 post-election violence.

The
website claims that NASA Pentagon members have previously traded accusations
against each other and are now hugging on political podiums without resolving
issues.

In
one of the videos on the controversial website, Raila in a 2002 rally accuses
his co-principal Musalia Mudavadi and retired President Daniel Moi of having
been the architects of the Goldenberg scam.

In
a recent interview, Raila insisted that Musalia was cleared of the multi-billion-shilling
scam that nearly brought Kenya to its knees.

Raila's
team on the other hand has hired influential bloggers with millions of
followers on social media to lead its dirty campaigns. Some of the bloggers use
pseudonyms to comment on stories published by mainstream news organisations.

The
bloggers continuously collect, monitor and analyse messages from Jubilee before
responding to them almost instantly.

The
Raila team has also been creating and widely circulating videos rubbishing
Jubilee's achievements.

But
Uhuru’s strategists have taken the campaigns to an all-time high, with leading
international data firms already on board.

Global
data-mining company Cambridge Analytica, contracted by Uhuru, occupies the
entire seventh floor of the eight-storey Jubilee Centre in Pangani.

CA
is said to be capable of trawling Facebook and buying up commercial consumer
datasets to identify 'persuadable' voters. An expose by the Guardian newspaper
of the UK last month claimed that CA, in conjunction with its sister company AggregateIQ
in Vancouver, Canada, essentially won the Brexit vote using the same strategy.
It then bombards the persuadable voters with more than a billion social media
posts and adverts.

Cambridge
Analytica is credited with helping Candidate Donald Trump to win the American
presidential election last November and with helping the Leave side to win in
the Brexit referendum in the UK last June. It has been described as a “psychological
warfare firm”.

But
apart from the global firms, both Jubilee and NASA have also invested in local
tech-savvy teams drawn from the information and communications technology
industry.

ODM
Secretary General Agnes Zani told the Star that they are “handling every
component of our campaigns seriously”, declining to divulge their online strategy.

The
Raila team has turned a widely advertised video on Jubilee delivery
achievements against the ruling party. The video's adverts, currently running
on TV, showcase what Jubilee describes as its achievements over the past four-and-a-half
years is dubbed “A Journey of Transformation”.

But
in the corrupted video, widely shared on WhatsApp groups, NASA terms the
Jubilee tenure “A Journey of Gimmicks and PR Stunts”.

They
chide Jubilee for claiming to have transformed the country's healthcare, yet
Sh5 billion was allegedly lost at the Ministry of Health’s Afya House
headquarters in what has come to be known as the MafyaHouse scandal.

Questions
over the handling of donor money at the Ministry of Health led to suspension of
Sh2.5 billion funding from the US government.

“Food
security? Brokers and middlemen making billions at the expense of farmers and
hungry Kenya,” it adds.

The
video that ends with the voice of Musalia urging NASA supporters to vote out
Jubilee also claims that the Sh338 billion Standard Gauge Railway is not
economically viable.

Sources
privy to activities in NASA promised it will be an emotional campaign, where
both videos will be played and Jubilee statements used to show Kenyans how they
have been suffering.

“We
have enough content to push on all media platforms and a strong team to broadcast
the best,” said a source at Capitol Hill.

Opposition
bloggers believe the government harasses them for telling the truth. They argue
pushing the government to address historical injustices amounts to hate speech.

Both
the NASA and JP teams use a Twitter deck, which offers a more convenient
experience by letting people view multiple timelines in one easy interface. The
deck hosts advanced features to get the most of social network support. It
manages multiple accounts, the schedule for posting and builds Tweet
collections, among other features.

Jubilee
and NASA believe they can capitalise on social media users to reach out to
millions of voters through a ripple effect.

Besides,
there is Uhuru's own Facebook page and Twitter handle that has about 3.068
million likes and 2.13 million followers, respectively. Here, Uhuru’s team
actively post his schedule, campaign videos, and press statements.

Raila
on the other hand has 1.07 million followers on Twitter and 816,998 likes on
Facebook.